Reviews for the Road to Gehenna DLC for The Talos Principle are coming out. It seems reviewers are very fond of it, judging by the reviews covered below.

PC Gamer gave Road to Gehenna a 8.5 out of ten. Chris Thursten, the reviewer, enjoyed the puzzles and the new terminal system, but seemed to be disappointed by the lack of new puzzle elements, stating that “A few more surprises within the puzzles themselves would have made this expansion essential.”. Despite this, he still says that “it still comes highly recommended.”

Gamecloud scored Road to Gehenna a nine out of ten. The reviewer, William Kirk, states that, in the DLC, “everything is wholly refined” and that “It’s a game that focuses on mastery over new tricks; although, the star of the show is really Gehenna itself”. He seemed to enjoy how Gehenna feels more alive than the base game does thanks to the new terminal system.

Pixeldynamo's Melissa Vach has given Road to Gehenna a score of 8.8 out of 10. They spend a good amount of time discussing the difficulty of the puzzles in the DLC, stating that “...you’re going to need both creative thinking and accuracy for the puzzles in Road to Gehenna “.

Rock Paper Shotgun did not give the DLC a score, but seemed quite impressed with the writing and how difficult the puzzles are. The reviewer, John Walker , revealed that he actually write down possible solutions on paper, showing how much planning he put into solving the puzzles. He also seemed quite impressed with the writing in the terminals, noting that he “especially love(d) the genuinely cruel mockery of self-congratulatory communities’ praising each other’s mediocrity”.

Technically I don't count, because I was a tester and now even an employee, but it is definitely a must have. And I'd personally recommend the terminals as the main point of this expansion now, because it's something special. For everything else, I think a visit at the steam forums can help.

Well, most of us here were beta testers, so we all may be a bit biased However, I do think it's a worthwhile DLC package. I would say it takes most folks 8-10 hours to complete if they did everything (including the 10 stars needed for the expanded ending) without any outside help. Basically it comes down to this:

If you enjoyed The Talos Principle for its puzzles: Well be prepared to be taken to a much higher difficulty to satisfy that puzzle solving itch. The DLC has no gradual increase in difficulty this time around, it starts off right where the base game ended in the difficulty department. Especially if you found the difficulty too easy in the original game, you will be satisfied with the difficulty this time around.

If you enjoyed the philosophy of The Talos Principle: You will be pleasantly surprised with the DLC. Instead of regurgitating the ideas in the base game (in a nutshell: are robots human?), the DLC encompasses a whole new realm of philosophy. Elohim is pretty much nonexistent this time around, instead story is advanced primarily through the terminals. By far the most intriguing part of the storyline is the discussion of other bots on a digital "message board." If you are familiar with Plato's allegory of the Cave, this DLC is very reminiscent of that. Once again, the DLC offers a very great skin-deep philosophy lesson, but also provides so much more if you want to dig deeper.

If you want new puzzle items / environments / more: This is the one area you may be disappointed. There aren't any new objects to use in puzzles and the DLC mostly reuses assets from the base game for environments. However, Croteam uses these puzzle items and assets in creative new ways that were never used in the base game.

Shame about the environments. I was admittedly hoping for some new scenery, since the beauty and variety in the base game certainly left an impression (my current wallpaper is a screenshot from one of the later areas).

Puzzle-wise I found the puzzles in the original to be neither too easy nor too difficult, generally speaking (I didn't exhaustively collect all the stars, though, and those seem like they could get rather challenging). Only a few of the puzzles really annoyed me, and they were generally ones where I got the concept right but somehow erred slightly in execution.

for example, the one tower segment where you align the boxes on the fan to float up was easy to get the concept for, but making it function properly was a nightmare for me, personally.

That said, regressing to the difficultly of the earlier puzzles would be a step back, so glad to hear they keep the difficulty as an extension of the base game. Hopefully that doesn't mean that every puzzle uses the record mechanic, though. That would likely get a bit tiresome.

Greatly pleased to hear that the writing isn't simply re-hashed from the base game, and that they try to tackle new concepts (hopefully with the same degree of meta-commentary as the first, but following a different path).

Sure thing, don't get me wrong, the environments still look gorgeous even with reused assets. Not sure if you have seen any screenshots from promotional artwork. For example, Rome has a massive aqueduct spanning the entire level, Egypt consists of a huge sandswept crater (which is also incorporated into a puzzle very ingeniously).

If it is any consolation, there are only two puzzles that use the recorder (if I remember correctly), two puzzles that use the turret, and only one puzzle has an exploding mine. I think Croteam paid close attention to what mechanics players disliked the most and made sure to minimize their use in the DLC.

I think the one of the reasons that many players weren't always fond of the recorders was that a fair number of them required very precise timing in addition to sequencing, which made some trial-and-error situations rather mystifying since you didn't necessarily know if you goofed on your concept or in your execution. So you'd spend a good while trying a different method, only to then return to your original idea and have it work. That happened at least a couple times on my end, anyway.

Quote:

Originally Posted by NoMercy Rider

Sure thing, don't get me wrong, the environments still look gorgeous even with reused assets. Not sure if you have seen any screenshots from promotional artwork. For example, Rome has a massive aqueduct spanning the entire level, Egypt consists of a huge sandswept crater (which is also incorporated into a puzzle very ingeniously).

Sounds promising.

I've actually been avoiding that kind of stuff so that it remains a surprise. I knew almost nothing of Talos Principle going in (save that it was a puzzle-based game from Croteam with philosophical themes), and I think exploring the game in that way contributed to my sense of intrigue as I went through.

Sounds good. Bought it the day it came out, but haven't had time to play it yet. But at least it sounds like I have something to look forward to.

As for the recording mechanic, I didn't really have the experience that Brute had. Was never in doubt of whether it was my concept or execution that was wrong. But the recorder based puzzles did require a good deal more "trial and error" than the other puzzles. Mainly because you rarely had the opportunity to see the steps lying ahead, so you had to expand your plan and execution by a single step at a time, starting from the beginning every time.

I didn't mind the recorder puzzles. It was just a bit of a mind bender of "ok, place objects in these locations, then with the recorder, move these objects to there and do X, and give yourself enough time for the "real" you to grab the items and link to the "fake" ones.

I've solved 8 so far and enjoying things. I have found it similar to the base game that there are some puzzles that are much simpler for you to "get" than other ones. Doesn't mean those are the "easy" puzzles. Just that I could work it out faster .. or not think .. woah this looks complex and walk to another one

I will be sad when all puzzles stars are solved .. Might have to get the wife to play and watch her try to solve things to kinda get that "first" experience again.